Unable to upgrade to 2.0 or restore to previous FW.

Before anyone flames me with "search the forum," I have been searching this and other forums for days...I've tried absolutely everything I've read, and I'm still up crap creek.

I had an iPod touch with a jailbroken 1.1.4. Everything was going fine until I wanted to upgrade to 2.0. I installed iTunes 7.7 and bought the upgrade. While it was attempting to upgrade, I got the dreaded "Jim's iPod could not be restored due to an unknown error (160#)." I rebooted it and tried to restore, but same problem. Tried it 5 more times, same problem. Uninstalled iTunes, Apple Mobile Device service, Bonjour server, and deleted everything Apple/iTunes related (on a PC) and then reinstalled 7.7...same problem.

I then went to the Internets. I put the iPod in DFU mode and tried installing 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.4, and 1.1.5, with no joy...same errors. I used iBrickr...screen went green (bad). I attempted tp installed the 1.1.2(?) within iBrickr and it again failed. Yet after I did that, I was able to manually restore to 1.1.4.

From this point, I still couldn't upgrade to 2.0. I continue to get the same error, and every time I try to upgrade, it locks my iPod in recovery mode and I'm forced to use ZiPhone to get it out. I also attempted to try this on another computer, with no previous iTunes installed, and same exact error. I even attempted to manually apply 2.0 FW and a PWNed 2.0 FW, with no luck on either...same error.

So I've literally tried everything I've read. What other options do I have to upgrade, or restore to another FW? It seems like I have functionality when I put it in normal mode via ZiPhone, but after that I can't do anything...downgrade, upgrade, jailbreak, nothing. I'm not able to take it to an Apple store, because I'm in the military overseas and I can't get to one.

So...does anyone have any other ideas, or some some obvious technique I missed?

EDIT: I found the Apple docs page on the error I was receiving, and did the "create a new user" step, which at least let me restore...but only to 1.1.5. Any other ideas on how to upgrade to 2.0?